Michael Hodgkiss Poop 2018

Every January since 1965 my brother, KEVIN PATRICK* and I would exchange lists of our favorite albums of the year. We both had eclectic tastes for teens. He tried to steer me toward MOTOWN records while I dragged him through Anglophile and English blues related groups. After we secured each others lists we would search far and wide to find published lists to see which of us garnered more points in the standings,that being determined by point values which we made up:eg. 20 points for #1, one point for #20/or no listing at all, etc. As time went on a few others joined our small collective of nut jobs. Years ago my brother’s friend started an organized group which he allowed us to join in on and he actually publishes the sometimes embarrassing results, but all in good fun.

My kid brother passed away in February at age 64 after a long fight with cancer and cancer related heart issues. Seems the chemo of the 70’s slowly wore away the walls to his heart but not his spirit. Up until his last breath he was a true collector of all kinds of music, and his lists each year reflected that.This is my first year without his list.However, while searching my archives I found how strange our 1979 listing had us in almost a virtual tie.(He won). The scoring criteria that year and for many other years was the work of Robert Christgau and his BEST OF published annually in the VILLAGE VOICE. Thank you Bob for all the years of enjoyment,and I hope you are not offended that I publish the ’79 results here.PS: My brother beat me out with THE SHOES and THE BUZZCOCKS. We both had THE CLASH and ELVIS COSTELLO in our top 3, a balancing act for our totals. Neither of us had AIR. Here’s a walk down memory lane.

So, Thanks to Mark R and Mark Z for doing your annual extravaganza allowing us knuckleheads to pontificate on our music and our (poor) taste in music.

Mine for 2018 –

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#1: JOHN COLTRANE- “Both Directions At Once” -The missing link the critics say. The best release, should be all of my TOP TEN as nothing comes close, nothing will, its COLTRANE guys.

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#2: ROSANNE CASH- “She Remembers Everything”- Five years is along time to wait but here it is, a sentimental favorite for me as my brother loved him some Rosanne Cash.“From this point on there’s nothing certain/except there’s not many miles to go,”…

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#3: RICHARD THOMPSON- “13 Rivers”-According to Stephen M. Deusner in PITCHFORK.com “After fifty years and nearly twenty solo albums, the low-key guitar god finds new ways to renew old sentiments as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist on what may be his best album this century.”
Who am I to disagree?

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#4:DAVID BYRNE-“American Utopia” David Byrne drives me crazy, and me thinks he does it on purpose. Each outing is different from the previous one but is actually the same, sorta. I loved T Heads, still do.My brother and I had most everything they did, demos, bootlegs, singles, rarities, etc and I also have (vinyl) ENO and his runs with 801, et.al. So this recording is a bit of all those and others.It’s has day to day lifetime themes,but not necessarily our life scenes.”Everybody’s Coming to My House”,”Every Day Is A Miracle” and then finally, “Here” “Here too many sounds for your brain to comprehend / Here the sound gets organized into things that make some sense / Here is something we call elucidation / Is it the truth? Or merely a description?” Whew…

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#5:FRANK TURNER-“Be More Kind”- Just the one tune “Let’s Make America Great Again” should piss off a few of THE NUT PATROL but I don’t care. Here is an Englishman who knows how fucked up we, THE USA, have been since November 8,2016.nme.com:

Frank Turner spends his seventh album considering the dire state of the world from multiple angles and, unlike the tidal wave of terrified tin-pot politics plonked incongruously in the middle of every alt-rock album for the past eighteen months, he even proffers some tentative answers.‘Be More Kind’ opens with ‘Don’t Worry’, a reassuring gospel-folk plea for sanity, calm and human connection – rather than social-media isolation – in a world gone wild. “I don’t know what I’m doing, no-one has a clue,” Frank tells Britain’s bewildered generation, “but you’ll figure it out, I might too”. From there he spends the opening half of the record tackling Brexit and Trump with a passion and vitriol that he’s recently only been directing at himself – with inspiring results. ‘1933’ astutely likens the West’s poverty-inspired rightwards swing to Hitler’s ascent to power by blaming immigrants for the desperate state of early-‘30s Germany; amid some of Turner’s fieriest rabble-rock bluster, he reflects the confusion and ignorance of the age. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore!” he yells, though he clearly does: “Don’t go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn,” Turner warns, “be suspicious of simple answers, that shit’s for fascists and maybe teenagers”. A few tracks later he addresses Trump’s ascendance and the moral decline of America on ‘Let’s Make America Great Again’. Frank’s solution: “Making racists ashamed again/Let’s make compassion in fashion again”.

#6-#10 in No Particular Order
MITSKI -“Be A Cowboy”
JAYHAWKS-‘Back Roads and Random Motels
BOZ SCAGGS-“Out of the Blues”
COURTNEY BARNETT- “Tell Me How You Really Feel”
LUCERO- “Among The Ghosts”

Re-issues(all vinyl)
THE BEATLES- The Beatles
JEFF BUCKLEY- Live at SinE
BOB DYLAN- More Blood On The Tracks
THE KINKS- Village Green Preservation Society